


Not so Noble, Not So Selfless

by JiaRoyale



Category: BBC's Sherlock, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mrs. Hudson - Freeform, Pre and Post Reichenbach, not dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-10
Updated: 2013-11-10
Packaged: 2018-01-01 00:56:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1038436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JiaRoyale/pseuds/JiaRoyale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One Shot Post-Reichenbach Fall, Sherlock reveals himself in the apartment. Another "not-dead" speculation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not so Noble, Not So Selfless

“You’re alive.” 

He couldn’t hold the tears back any more than he could the day he checked the broken body’s fluttering pulse. They spilled as freely as they did when he ordered Sherlock to stop it. Just stop it. 

Stop being dead. 

Still in the doorway, John dropped the groceries, the tins scattering every which way. He stumbled forward, blinded by his tears, toward the blue blur with dark hair and pale skin, needing to know that it was solid, that it wasn’t his mind shattering at last. And the figure reached out and caught him, held him tightly, breathless whispers against his hair. 

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. John, I am so sorry.” 

John knew that he must have snapped. Sherlock would never say he was sorry. Not in that reassuring tone. Not in that broken voice. 

“I swear, I had to do it, I had to, they would have killed you, they would have killed Mrs. Hudson—“

John jerked back and stared up at the taller man. Sherlock’s face was also shell-shocked, as though he couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with his own emotions, as though he’d never felt anything so intense before. “Mrs. Hudson. Does she know-“

“Don’t worry. She knows I’m home. She knows-…”he swallowed hard. “She knows I’m alive.” A small smile quirked across his face. “Seems that for all her anger at me, she was glad to have me back.” 

A chill ran through John. “You knew? You were _there_ , and you let us think you were _dead_?! You let me cry at your grave and you didn’t—“ He turned away, balling his fist. If he didn’t walk away now, he was going to deck Sherlock so hard he’d wake up in time to meet John’s grandchildren. 

“I had to, John,” and it may have been the doctor’s imagination, it must have been, but he thought he heard a plea in Sherlock’s voice, “you don’t know how hard it was to make sure you were safe. If I didn’t ‘die,’ you would have. You and Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade—“ 

Slowly, John turned back, his anger melting. “You did this for us?”

Sherlock smiled sadly. “No. I’m not so noble, John, you know that. I did it for me.” He stepped forward, towering over John. “I couldn’t live in a world…without my friends.”

**Author's Note:**

> Several months old, very much before sneak peaks were being revealed.


End file.
